Gordon Fee's work on I Corinthians is a contribution to The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Prepared by some of the world's leading scholars, the series provides an exposition of the New Testament books that is thorough and fully abreast of modern scholarship yet faithful to the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God.

Como se reconoce habitualmente en los estudios que tratan el tema, la idea de “cuerpo mistico” en los textos de Pablo de Tarso esta ligada al sintagma ἐν Χριστῷ. Esta opinion fue defendida en epoca moderna por A. Deissmann (1892), que reviso la literatura clasica y los Setenta para encontrar antecedentes de dicha locucion. Su aportacion, en definitiva, fue asegurar que Pablo de Tarso no se sometio a tradicion clasica alguna y si, en cambio, a la lengua hebrea, concretamente a la preposicion be, y que este sintagma reviste un valor propio y nuevo, el mistico. Asocio tambien ciertas expresiones del titulo mesianico en genitivo a la misma idea, peculiaridad que ha venido siendo denominada “genitivo mistico”. Sin embargo, una revision de la bibliografia mas importante sobre este tema permite descubrir que las dudas respecto a estas afirmaciones han aparecido al menos desde los primeros anos del siglo pasado. Son de destacar en este sentido los trabajos de Bang (1920) y Dobschutz (1923-1924), cuyas ideas, basadas en la comparacion de los usos de ἐν Χριστῷ, διὰ Χριστόν, διὰ Χριστοῦ y otros sintagmas apuntan a una situacion mas complicada. Con todo, durante el siglo XX no ha cambiado en lo sustancial la idea de que en las cartas de Pablo (sean estas las consideradas autenticas, sean tambien las seudonimas) hay un misticismo anclado en el sintagma ἐν Χριστῷ. Pero las diversas aportaciones de algunos autores han matizado la idea y despojado de algunos ejemplos clasicos a la teoria: Neugebauer (1961) menciona cuatro valores para este sintagma:local, temporal, modal y adjetival. Destaca entre todos, ya en el siglo XXI, Timms, que en su tesis doctoral concluye que ningun ejemplo de este sintagma apunta a un cuerpo mistico. Estas dudas, en definitiva, invitan tanto a investigar de nuevo el material examinado por Deissmann como a buscar nuevos enfoques del conjunto. En esta linea, la aportacion de mi tesis parte de la idea de que Pablo de Tarso es el autor que abre el catalogo del NT y que, como judio ortodoxo que era, hubo de basarse en los Setenta para encauzar su mensaje en el mundo griego. Mirar hacia los Setenta significa volver sobre la preposicion be, pero no para analizar su influencia sino para repasar como fue traducida al griego. Del material expresado con ἐν+ dativo mi trabajo destaca el referido a “prestar atencion a alguien o algo” y el uso para indicar causa, medio y agente. Una vez seleccionados los usos mas interesantes en relacion con ἐν Χριστῷ, los he aplicado a Yahve, a los pronombres de segunda persona singular y a sustantivos abstractos...

The First Epistle to the Corinthians

El cuerpo místico en San Pablo: un problema sintáctico

The study presents the views of some important representatives of the Jewish, patristic and contemporary exegesis of the tohu wabohu (Genesis 1, 2). The exegesis of the expression is important because it raises, in the context of the first two verses of Genesis, the question of the way in which God created the world: from nothing or from a pre-existing chaos. I found many translations and interpretations of tohu wabohu: chaos (Jeremiah’s understanding, Jer 4: 23-26), balance between the infinite creativity of God and the limited receptivity of the pure space (Kabbalistic view), invisible and unformed (LXX and the Greek Fathers), waste, void, desert, chaos, nothingness, formless, empty (most of the contemporary exegetes). The various interpretations of the concept were usually determined by the more general view of Genesis 1: the descriptive view; the chronological view, the gap theory, the framework view or the dynamic ontological view; the liturgical, poetic and spiritual view. I found Westermann’s and Brueggemann’s hermeneutical positions accurate, honest and convincing: we do not need to choose between creation from nothing and creation from a pre-existing chaos, because the Hebrew text is in fact richer if we ignore or overlook this conceptual limitation. Based on its apophatic vision, Orthodox theology can accept these hermeneutics, because the conceptual “antinomy” can be a way to overcome the limits of human reason. Ontologically speaking, the primordial nothingness or abyss could be understood as the infinite „kenosis” of the absolute and infinite Logos. This can be the ultimate antinomy, the last limit of thought, because when we affirm the infinite „kenosis” of the divine Logos, we must affirm the absolutely affirmative and „enstatic” character of God, who admits no negation and no change within Him. I also appreciated the interpretations which accepted the idea of a primordial chaos created by God, because these interpretations allow a dialogue between the biblical cosmology and the scientific cosmology; at the same time, they offer many possibilities for application in the spiritual life and for improving faith. Why did God create the world in this way? Because only in a world that has degrees of indeterminacy in its inner structure can a real freedom be possible for human beings.
Keywords: tohu wabohu, waste, void, formless, chaos, creation, indeterminacy

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Tohu wabohu in Genesis 1, 2. Kabbalistic, patristic and modern exegesis

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the fire of eschatological judgment and testing, as distinct from the fire of hell or Gehenna, in the New Testament. The relevant texts, which indicate that both the righteous and the wicked are subjected to fire, can be subsumed under the general category of the “fiery ordeal.” Through an analysis of this understudied motif, the thesis demonstrates that belief in the dual (purificatory and punitive) function of fire is attested to in the Christian tradition at a date earlier than is frequently recognized. 

The first chapter of Part I introduces the topic, provides the historiographical context, reviews the relevant literature, and lays out the basic methodology. Chapter 2 attends to matters of Religionsgeschichte, paying special attention to fire in Zoroastrian apocalypticism and in Greek and Roman thought. Part II establishes the Jewish apocalyptic context from within which the expectation of judgment by fire originated. Chapter 3 draws attention to the multiple functions of fire in the Hebrew Bible, including its role in theophanies, while giving primary attention to its role in judgment, testing, and refining. In Chapter 4 we turn our attention to the apocalyptic literature of Second Temple Judaism, noting that judgment by fire comprises not only punishment for the wicked but also testing and even purification for the righteous or repentant.

Part III of our investigation discerns elements of the fiery ordeal motif in the New Testament. After a brief survey of the various functions of fire in the New Testament in Chapter 5, Chapter 6 examines the preaching of John the Baptist and the historical Jesus, particularly with regard to “baptism in fire” (Q 3:16; Mark 9:49; Luke 12:49-50) and several of Jesus’ more enigmatic sayings concerning fire (Luke 17:26-32; 23:31; Gos. Thom. 82). Chapter 7 traces the contours of the development of this motif in Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians (3:10-15) and in the Petrine Epistles (1 Pet 1:7; 4:12; 2 Pet 3:10-13), noting the distinctive ways in which 1 and 2 Peter reinterpret the fiery ordeal. In Chapter 8 we conclude that the above traditions, which encompass both very early and very late New Testament texts, testify to a shared belief that everyone, both the righteous and the wicked, would be subjected to eschatological judgment by fire and that the righteous would experience this judgment as a fiery ordeal through which they would be tested and, in some cases, ultimately purified.

Saved as through fire : the fiery ordeal in New Testament eschatology

The present study consists of a comparison of the impact of the Christ-event on the existence of the elect in Colossians and 1 Peter. As such it is a study in the theological anthropology of two significant New Testament texts. The main argument of this thesis is that Colossians and 1 Peter contain distinctive emphases in their understanding of: the σάρξ (“flesh”) of the elect (anthropology), the temporal axis of salvation (eschatology), the extent to which the elect participate in the “heavenly” sphere (cosmology), and the means to live rightly (agency). Because a NT author’s beliefs prior to faith in Christ reflect a particular cognitive environment formed by the author’s historical setting and cultural milieu, setting the author’s views in the context of Early Jewish texts throws fresh light on his thought-world and understanding of the new existence. I argue that many of the features distinguishing Colossians from 1 Peter stem from the possibility that Colossians reflects the thought-world of 4QInstruction and 1 Peter that of the Hodayot.
	The thesis has the following structure. Chapter 1 explains the reasoning for comparing Colossians and 1 Peter by showing their manifold similarities with one another including their respective Christologies which undergird their remarkably similar paraenetical material. The question is raised why, if the epistles end up offering almost identical paraenesis, they have such distinctive theological patterns of thought. Chapter 2 is an overview of scholarship demonstrating that this question has not been adequately answered. This is due partly to an emphasis on the recipient context and to reading each respective author’s theology primarily as a response to the Sitz im Leben of the recipients. The overview will also demonstrate that both authors draw from the HB and EJL to interpret the impact of the Christ-event, but do so with distinctive language, emphases, and metaphors. Chapter 3 will analyze 1 Peter’s understanding of the new existence locating it within the author’s worldview in which suffering is a significant aspect of being God’s ‘end of days’ people. Chapter 4 will explore the Hodayot and demonstrate the manifold ways in which it provides antecedents to ideas identified in 1 Peter. Chapter 5 will analyze the worldview of the author of Colossians and his understanding of the new existence including his emphasis on the elect as possessing the “mystery” of God. Chapter 6 will explore 4QInstruction and demonstrate the manifold ways in which it provides antecedents to ideas identified in Colossians. Chapter 7 will conclude the thesis drawing the threads together and summarizing the distinctive emphases of Colossians and 1 Peter in their respective understandings of the new existence and the means to live rightly.

New existence and righteous living : Colossians and 1 Peter in conversation with 4QInstruction and the Hodayot

God’s creative activity in the beginning is important to Paul. Yet Paul’s care for and interpretation of it is often unrecognized, occasionally denied, typically left underdeveloped, and sometimes interpreted wrongly. This thesis approaches Paul as an interpreter of his sacred scriptural texts concerning creation. It compares his reading of creation in 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans with those more detailed treatments of the same texts by Philo of Alexandria in his commentary on Genesis 1-2, De Opificio Mundi. The central thesis is this: Paul’s interpretation of creation, like Philo’s in his commentary, contains three interwoven aspects: the beginning of the world, the beginning of humanity, and God’s intentions before the beginning. Chapter 1, “Before the Beginning?,” explores Philo’s view that God’s pre-creational plan involves an architectural blueprint of the universe which enables goodness and beauty and Paul’s view that it involves a crucified Christ and a glory to which God-lovers are redeemed through conformity with this Christ’s image. There we will demonstrate that for Paul, as for Philo, the Before both affects and is affected by his reading of Genesis’ creation texts. Chapter 2, “The Beginning of the World,” establishes how Philo and Paul consider the ontological nature of heaven, earth, and their inhabitants to be beautiful and glorious due to perfect accord with God’s word, intentions, and desires—i.e., an implicit Before. Chapter 3, “The Beginning of Humanity,” investigates how Philo and Paul set the more particular creation of humanity within the larger context of the creation of the world, and how recognizing this aids in our own interpretation of some often misunderstood aspects of their views of Adam. God’s pre-creational “purpose” and “desire” is also an integral aspect of both interpreters’ treatments of the creation of humanity. Paul, like Philo, displays three tightly woven strands within his interpretation of the Beginning.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians

Citations

El cuerpo místico en San Pablo: un problema sintáctico

Tohu wabohu in Genesis 1, 2. Kabbalistic, patristic and modern exegesis

Saved as through fire : the fiery ordeal in New Testament eschatology

New existence and righteous living : Colossians and 1 Peter in conversation with 4QInstruction and the Hodayot

The beginning and before : interpreting creation in Paul and Philo